Clutch control mechanism



Jan. 9, 1951 D. T. JAMES CLUTCH CONTROL MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 31, 1948 Jan. 9, 1951 'D, T, AMES 2,537,673

CLUTCH CONTROL MECHANISM Filed Dec. 31, 1948 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 fiavz'd Z JZzmes Jan. 9, 1951 D. T. JAMES CLUTCH CONTROL MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Dec. 51, 1948 lmwnizv' fiavid .Z'd'ama;

Patented Jan. 9, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLUTCH CONTROL MECHANISM David '1, James, Middletown, Md.

Application December 31, 1948, Serial No. 68,707

1 Claim. (01. 19249) (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government, for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to clutch controls and its primary object is to provide an automatic latching and tripping mechanism for engaging and disengaging a clutch after it has made precisely one revolution.

Another important object is to provide such a mechanism for the extremely accurate and sensitive control of the transmission of power from a standard over-running type clutch to a primary operating machine, such as the Automatic Inoculating Apparatus described in the co-pending application of John C. Wagner and David T. James, Serial Number 65,542, filed December 16, 1948.

Another object is to provide such a mechanism wherein, regardless of whether or not the primary actuating means has moved out of contact, the

release of the clutch is automatically engagedafter one revolution and the delivery of power through the clutch is thereby stopped.

Other equally important objects will more plainly appear from the detailed specification and drawing herein presented in exemplification but not in limitation of the present invention. Like reference characters represent like parts in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is an isometric view showing the novel control mechanism and a standard type of clutch having its inner drum held in the stop or disengaged position by an obstructingfinger or stop on the control mechanism. This stop is shown pressing against an actuating finger qr tooth on the clutch drum in such a manner as to prevent rotation of the drum.

Fig. 2 is an isometric view showing the clutch mechanism of Fig. 1 as its stop is moving rearwardly and out of engagement with the actuating tooth on the inner drum of the clutch and out of the tooths plane of rotation in order that the clutch drum may be permitted to be rotated by its outer shell. At this instant the drum is stationary-not yet having started to rotate.

Fig. 3 is another isometric view of the same apparatus. Here a cam on the drive shaft of the clutch drum is shown rotating in a counter clockwise direction and raising a lever on the control mechanism in a clockwise direction in a manner which permits a stop on the control mechanism to be spring-pressed forwardly into its original tooth engaging and drum stopping position.

The clutch shown at 30 is intended to transmit amended April 30, 1928; '370 O. G. 757).

power to a primary operating machine, (not shown) and to be controlled by the novel latching and tripping device indicated at 40.

Clutch 30 represents the well known over-running type which is sometimes referred to as an over-riding clutch. A form of this clutch is illustrated and described in the U. S. Patent 2,140,737 entitled Clutch issued December 20. 1938 to Richard Grifiith Dickens. As outer shell 2! is continuously rotated (by a source of power not shown), it delivers power continuously at the same rate-to a shaft 22, until a clutch disengaging tooth 23 is brought against a stop such as shown at 24 in the present preferred embodiment. A disengagement is thereby efiected with in the clutch whereby outer shell 2| continues to rotate although power is no longer transmitted to shaft 22. 1

Control mechanism 40 comprises support 44, which carries on its upright portion pivot member I4, and on its base portion, plunger member 25. Mounted for rotation about pivot I4 is latching lever 21 provided with boss 4| normally held against stop I6 by torsion spring l1.

At the lower portion of lever 21 is pivot I8. Mounted for rotation about pivot I8 is tripping arm 28 provided with stop pin [9 for engaging rod 29 of plunger 25. Arm 28 also carries pin l5 for engaging the lower end of leaf spring l3. The upper portion of spring I3 is held in position by retaining pin A2 and fulcrum pin 43 in lever 21. 23 and pin 19 downwardly against plunger rod 29.

Plunger 25 is held against rotation in its housing in base 44 by means of key 26 and is arranged to be normally urged forwardly toward arm 28 by means of coiled compression spring I0. Spring It is provided with an adjustable stop unit l2, on rod 29, which can be set to regulate the forward travel of plunger 25 and rod 29 so that, in operation, finger 24 fixed to rod 29 may reach a sufficiently advanced plane to engage tooth 23.

In operation, power is applied to rotate the driving shell 2| of clutch 30, and the revolution cycle may then be started by any suitable actuating member (not shown) carried by the primary machine and arranged to-ride into and remain I at least temporarily in contact with lever 21 of Spring I3 is arranged to normally urge arm the finger 4| is in contact with the stop [6 in Fig. 1 but in Fig. 2 this finger has moved away from the stop 16.) This movement, of course, forces the piston 25 rearwardly and slides the stop 24 off the tooth 23 and out of its plane of rotation.

This contact overcomes the normal action of spring l1. and depresses lever 21 inwardly on its pivot 14, toward base 44. This movement causes the lever arm 28 to push rod 29 and finger 24 which is fixed to rod 29 rearwardly against the action of spring Hi. This causes finger 23; to. become disengaged from tooth 23 in clutch 38. This immediately actuates the well known engaging mechanism in clutch 3.0 and shaft 22 inc-- mediately commences one revolution for the transmission of power through ring 2|, and drum 20, to the primary machine.

At precisely the completion of one revolution of shaft 22, cam H which is attached to shaft 22.. contacts and elevates lever arm 28 approxb mately 30 above the horizontal as shown by the arrow adjacent arm 28. This releases rod 29c wh und r h f rwa u in of sprin immediately carries finger 24 into its forwardposition where it is stopped by the action of stopnut l2 on plunger'rod 28. Inthis forward position. finger 24 immediately re-engages tooth 23' of clutch; 3.6.. which in turn instantly aetuates the disengaging mechanism within clutch. 30v and immediately stops the transmission of power through shaft 22; to the primary machine.

It. will, of course, be understood that so long; as the actuating member (not shown) on the primary machine continues to ride. or press. against. the. lever 21, the. drum can mak One, and only one, revolution. This is because the spring-pressed lever 21 must first return; to the advanced position shown in 1 before it can be pressed rearwardjly again. Only after the lever 21 has been snapped forward by its spring- 1.? into its advanced position, and then pressed rearwardly' to, the position shown in Fig. 2 can the drum make, another: revolution.

Actuating members on some primary machines are designed to intermittently and at predetermined; intervals engage the lever 21, push it rear. wardly and then. disengage this lever in order that it may snap bachinto. position shown. in Fig. 1. But whatever-the arrangement; however, until he act t m mber on he: pr m y mach e presses against the lever 2-1:, no. new revolution of the drum is possible. This feature of my ins vention is considered to. be an important one as is well exemplified in the above egg inoculating machine illustrated and described in the above mentioned application for patent, Serial No. 65. 42, Were the drumto rotate twice in this. machine while the lever 21 is held in the position. indicated in Fig 2 of the instant application and the inoculating needle is inserted into an egg, the egg would be rei-nooulated and made useless, for virus purposes.

This. description covers the operation of the present invention for one revolution control; however, with a plurality of teeth similar to tooth 2'3, and with a. plurality of lobes on. cam I 1-, it is possible; to attain automatic stopping at. various fractional; portions of one revolution of shaft 2-2.

In some. cases, for use with scientific apparatus, it may be desirable to operate lever 21 by hand. In this case it will be seen thatw-ith the, prompt release. of lever 21- whichis returned to its. origi na pos tion gai st. p t y spri g. t1. arm- 28 may be out of the way of cam H, but arm 28 will be followed in its return by finger 24 so that in this case finger 24 is in position to engage tooth 23 without the release action of arm 28.

In automatic operation, when lever 21 is against stop l6, lever arm 28 is held out of alignment with the plane of operation of cam H.

When the cam: tl (.seeFigB) pivots the arm 23 upwardly, the rod 29 of the spring pressed plunger, member 25 advances beneath this arm until it is halted by the stop nut l2 in a position in which the stop. 24 is held in the plane of rotation of the tooth 23 on the drum 2H and consequently stops the further rotation of the drum. It should be noted that the arm 28 is then held in a diagonal position (see Fig. 3) by the rod 25 and that no further rotation of the drum is possible until the actuating member of the primary machine moved outof engagement with the lever 21 and the lever 21 has snapped back into the position s own. E 1-. When the l ver 255 i released; from the pressure exerted by the actuator on th pr mary machin it is ad anced to t e position shown in Fig; 13 reason of the pressure exerted, by the; coil spring H in a counterclockwise direction and th sprin -pr ss d arm 2 of course. moves with the. l v r- Th acti n sl es the. arm 2 orwardly ver th ute nd of th rod 29 and the arm spring [Q forcesit downbe? tween the rodv 29 and; he. l er 2 Th contr mechanism. wil now r peat t cycle; of; operat on when the, lowe nd of ever 2 v in pu hed. rearwardl y.

Whe the: autom i lutc control me han sm is. embodied n he. utomatic inocul a pa tus referredto herein, it is preferred to embody the clutch nd: t con ro n. he d p a ement pump described in the co-pending application of David '1. James. and Arthur J. Rawson, filed Dernber 3.1,. 1943-, er al Number 6 In his case such a pump may be operated bydirect. connection to a. shaft. such as indicated at 22-. in, Figure l of the.- present application. When such a connection is made, eachrevolutionof' shaft 22 would; produce a 36.0 degree revolution of th shor m ntion d pump- Wh l he ore in de cr p i n reveals preierred; mbodim nt f he: pr s nt i v t it, isnot limite thereto but is intended to include all modifications thereon within. the spirit, and scope; of the appended; claim.

I claim;

A. lu revo u i n control m hanism f rcom trollingan oyer-runningtype of; rotary clutch adapted to be driven. by a primary drive 'ma-.

chine, said clutchhaving arotatable inner drum concentrically and; rigidly mounted on a driven shaft carrying a cam off setfrom; said drum and provided with an integral. L.-shapedtooth the stem of which projects from one side. of said drum, anouter driving. clutch member encir-. cling said drum; Said mechanismincluding a suppert, a. springmressed tripping lever adapted to: be intermittently en a ed. and disengaged pivotedto said support for limited rotation in a plane parallel with. said driven shaft and spring-. p ess a m ivo allr conn ed to s d tr pp n lever for;- limited rotation at. right angles thereto..

a p in -pres d plun er mea sli ably and r0.

tatably' mounted} on said support, said plunger means beingadapted for limitedreciprocal; move-.. nt n a path: para le o: d drive shaf nd av n at o ot ts. p i n a p. means to limit. the movement of saidplunger and a p n for u ging; said p ms the d r ction f said lever and having at its opposite end portion a stop finger adapted to abut against said L- shaped tooth and prevent the rotation of said drum when said finger is moved into the plane of rotation of said tooth, said arm being adapted to be moved in and out of the plane of rotation of said cam in accordance with the movement of said lever and being also adapted to ride on said cam and to be pivotally raised by said cam above the plane of said spring-pressed plunger 10 Number and thereby permit said plunger to move said stop member into the plane of rotation of said REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date 1,810,317 Lasker June 16, 1931 2,441,314 Ferris May 11, 1948 

